Wednesday, July 4, 2012

DMZ Dreaming

One of the most frequently asked questions I face from my friends in Fiji is, “Have you been to
North Korearethis is, “No.” However I now have to moify this response as a result of my experiences
last week.

I first learned
about the divided Korea in high school history classes, studying conflicts.
During those classes, I learned about the circumstances surrounding the Korean
War and the division of North and South Korea. However it was not until I came
to Seoul, that I began to understand how deep the wounds of the war and this
division are. One Sunday, in Church, I watched a video about how Christians
were persecuted by communist soldiers during the war. As I read more about the
situation in the North and listened to stories, and witnessed the frustrated
hope of those in the South for eventual reunification – some not knowing
whether their relatives are alive or dead – I began to appreciate what I was
learning, for this is an important part of understanding modern Korean society.

Crossing the line of Civilian Control - entering the DMZ

As a result, last
Friday I found myself at the USO office at Camp Kim. The United Service
Organizations Inc. is a private, non-profit organization whose mission is
to lift the spirits of US troops and their families, with programs and services
and 160 centers worldwide. At about 7.30am I got on a USO bus headed to
Panmunjeom, a point near the 38th Parallel known as the United Nations Joint
Security Area (JSA), which is on the boarder of North and South Korea. An hour
after leaving Seoul, I crossed the Civilian Control line marked by an electric fence that runs the
entire width of the country and entered the Demilitarized Zone or DMZ, a buffer
zone which stretches for two kilometres on either side of the border.

I am no stranger
to buffer zones. Four years ago I visited the Sinai Peninsula and toured the
Area of Operations in which Fijian Soldiers with the 2FIR Fiji Infantry
Battalion serve in the Multinational Force and Observers between Israel and
Egypt. To visit each of the Observation Posts, Checkpoints and Sector Control
Centres (Fiji forces being based in the most dangerous location) required
wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet and riding in an armoured vehicle with an
armed escort. On the tour of the DMZ, however while we has a military escort,
only toured the areas designated for such purposes and so no vests or helmets
were needed. This despite the fact that in the Sinai there is a 1979
Treaty of Peace between Egypt and Israel. There is no such treaty between the
North and South, only a ceasefire agreement and so the two Koreas are still
technically at war. Signs warning of
minefields along the road that leads to the United Nations Joint Security Area
and the scene that presents itself at Panmunjeom bear witness to the tension between
North and South.

"In Front of them All" : The United Nations Joint Security Area - facing North Korea, only 100metres away...

Panmumjeom lies 50Km north of Seoul. It is where the
ceasefire or armistice agreement was signed on July 27, 1953. Presently,
Panmunjeom is the current location where South and North dialogues take place. The
Joint Security Area (JSA), is set up on the Military Demarcation Line within
the UNCMAC compound and reserved for talks between the United Nations Command
(UNC) and its Communist counterparts (North Korea and China). On entering Camp
Bonifas, the base camp for the United Nations Command visitors must sign a
voucher where you agree to accept responsibility for"injury or death as a direct
result of enemy action". This serves as another reminder that we are in a
“war zone”, known as the most heavily fortified border in the world. For this
reason, the soldiers from the United States, South Korea and the 14 United
Nations member countries who provide military support have as their motto: “In
Front of Them All”. (Visit: http://www.f-106deltadart.com/Korea-DMZ/uncommand.htm for more on Camp Bonifas and the UN/JSA)

Inside the conference room straddling the North/South Korean border

After a security briefing we are shown to the conference
rooms that lie on the actual border, half of the building in each of the “Koreas”.
The conference table is on the border with the UN flag and row of microphones
marking the actual border. It is in this room that I am able to symbolically
“cross into” North Korea, under the watchful eye of a US Army Corporal and a
South Korean soldier. Outside the northern door is North Korea. It is a door
closed to us.

UN-JSA conference room, the flag and line of microphones mark the border - taken on North Korean side

Even though there is a ceasefire, ideological battle
between the two Koreas continue. North Korean soldiers regularly make obscene
gestures and insults to their Southern counterparts who stand stoically in a
modified tae kwon do stance with dark
sunglasses on, unflinching and intimidating as they face the North.

"My brother/My enemy"... Facing the enemy - South Korean Soldiers in position on the border - the concrete line in the middle of the picture is the border

The Bridge of No Return - the posts on the bridge mark the North/South border

Our tour of the Joint Security Area takes us to the “Bridge
of No Return,” used for the exchange of prisoners of war after the Korean War ended in
1953, and an observation post from where we are able (surrounded on three sides
by North Korea) to see the North Korean “Propaganda Village” of Kijong-dong
with what is the third tallest flagpole in the world (160metres) . As we leave
the JSA and continue in our DMZ tour we pass the South Korean village of
Taesong-dong, the South’s “Freedom Village.”

Inside the Third Infiltration Tunnel

Our next stop is the Third Infiltration Tunnel,
one of the tunnels built, apparently for a planned invasion of the South by the
North, and discovered in 1978 after a tip
by a defector from the North. It is over a kilometer and a half long and is 350
metres underground. Although its still It is estimated that approximately
10,000 soldiers can move through this tunnel in 1 hour.

Tourists peer into North Korea...

From the Mount Dora
Observation post we peer through the haze for a final glimpse of North Korea
before heading to Dorasan Station, the northern most train station of South
Korea. This station connects the South to the North, and was envisaged to
connect further to China, Russia and Europe. In operation between 2007 and
2008, today it sits empty, disused.

Rail tracks leading towards North Korea which lies less than a kilometre away

On the way back to Seoul, I felt I had just
awoken from a surreal dream. There are many signs and symbols of the hope for
reunification – but this is at yet still a dream. A dream of a people bound by
blood but separated by ideological differences of their leaders.

A sculpture promoting unification of north and south at site of the third tunnel

Sitting in the bus back to Seoul, as the images
of the DMZ became a blur in the past a feeling of frustrated hope was burned in
my heart. As I reflected on the situation in Korea and what I had experienced
during my tour of the DMZ, my thoughts drifted home to Fiji. Sure we are a
multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-religious country, but is it possible to
be, in the words of the late Lucky Dube, “different colours-one people”?

A literal reminder of the metaphorical minefield of national unity

The barriers for a unified, reconciled, peaceful
and just Fiji are not the concrete, barbed-wire and explosive barriers I saw at
the DMZ. The minefield we face is ideological. It is the minefield of
insecurity, ignorance, arrogance and greed. But we are slowly negotiating this
minefield. Let us keep focused on where we are walking; guiding and helping
others who are walking with us. Let us also stretch out our hands to those who
are walking towards us from the side. They are taking the same risks as we are.
For either of us to put a foot wrong now could be disastrous.